Need dot consultant? Dot advice

I appreciate that you recognize that truck drivers aren't always to blame, but HOS is like most things the government does: ineffective and inefficient. I preferred the split-berth so that I could take a nap in the afternoon if I needed one. With the current rules I can't do that. It's all or nothing in a consecutive 14 hour period. "Safety" and "preventing accidents" might be the intentions, but we all know where the road paved with good intentions leads to, don't we?

 

Nobody said you can't log a short nap during the 14 . It'll count on duty for the day but not towards your 70 in 8 days .
If your carrier doesn't allow it then they are the cause of the problem .

 

If a driver of a commercial vehicle is involved in an "at fault" accident, how long does it stay on their driving record and is that the only record it goes on? What is the record retention of that sort of thing?

 

Well not sure how long it stays on the record, but the motor vehicle records I pull show the complete driving history. I use these for court proceedings when a driver is suspended or revoked or has a terrible previous history. Each State is different and depending on your State, I would imagine violations that carry points would come off in time. Some States' are 3 years. But from what I see, on complete records, the violations are always there, but the points come off after a defined amount of time depending on your jurisdiction.

 

%There really is nothing to debate sir, all time spent behind the controls of a cmv while moving, should be logged as drive time, in regard to a road-side inspection, even if the driver is behind the wheel helping the inspector with lights, brake application etc etc, the vehicle is not moving, therefore, it should be logged as on-duty not driving.

 

You did not say while moving in the post I questioned .

 

From the compliance review side this what we faced:


While conducting Compliance Reviews: Driver has annotated in his log book, on-duty not driving in Princeton, NJ, however, his EZ pass activity shows him passing through the Delaware memorial Bridge during the same time! Log Falsification!!

Remember this, drivers and motor carriers: in regard to a compliance review, *In order for a false Record of Duty Status (RODS) to be a violation of a critical regulation, the supporting document(s) must indicate the RODS is false by one hour or more, or fifty miles or more..*

This is straight out of the Safety Investigator's Field manual!!!

I'm sure i will get into trouble for this one.....

 

Help, I am new at logging. what are the logging regulations for bobtailing and "in-transit" driving. "In-transit" being picking up new equipment to bring back to the yard for DOT inspections etc.

 

Can states have a more "stricter" regulation? Take Va for example, could Va cite a driver for "falsification" if he is off by 30 minutes or 25 miles? Just asking.

 

the logging regulations don't change because you are bob-tailing.. A CDL vehicle is a CDL vehicle, whether you are loaded, not loaded and yes even bob-tail